1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to liquid crystal panels and liquid crystal panels, and in particular, a technology suitable for active matrix liquid crystal panels in which pixel electrodes are switched with switching elements formed on a semiconductor substrate or an insulating substrate. The present invention also relates to an electronic device and a projection display device using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Liquid crystal panels having a structure in which a thin film transistor (TFT) array using amorphous silicon is formed on a glass substrate have been conventionally used as reflective active matrix liquid crystal panels which are used in light valves of projection display devices.
The active matrix liquid crystal panel using the TFT is a transmissive liquid crystal panel, and a pixel electrode is formed with a transparent conductive film. In transmissive liquid crystal panels, since the switching element-forming region, such as a TFT, which is provided in each pixel is not a transparent region, it has a serious defect that the aperture ratio is low and decreases as the resolution of the panel is improved to XGA, or S-VGA.
As a liquid crystal panel having a smaller size than the transmissive active matrix liquid crystal panel, a reflective active matrix liquid crystal panel in which pixel electrodes, as reflecting electrodes, are switched with transistors formed on a semiconductor substrate or an insulating substrate has been proposed.
In such a reflective liquid crystal panel, the formation of a passivation film as a protective film on the substrate in which the reflecting electrodes are formed is often omitted since it is not always necessary. The present inventor has studied the formation of a passivation film on a reflective liquid crystal panel substrate.
In general, a silicon nitride film formed by a low pressure CVD process or a plasma CVD process is often used as a passivation film in semiconductor devices. The passivation film formed by a current CVD process inevitably has some variation of the thickness of approximately 10%. Accordingly, the reflective liquid crystal panel has disadvantages, e.g. the reflectance noticeably varies with variation of the thickness of the passivation film.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a reflective liquid crystal panel substrate and a liquid crystal panel having a passivation film which does not vary the refractive index of the liquid crystal and having high reliability.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a reflective liquid crystal panel having high reliability and excellent image quality and an electronic device and projection display device using the same.
The present invention for achieving the above object has a liquid crystal panel substrate comprising a matrix of reflective electrodes formed on a substrate, a transistor formed corresponding to each reflective electrode, a voltage applied to the reflective electrodes through the respective transistors, a passivation film formed on the reflecting electrodes, the passivation film having a thickness to control a change in reflectance of the reflecting electrodes to wavelengths of incident light to within approximately 1%, and thus the thickness is selected such that the variation of the thickness less affects the reflectance of the reflecting electrodes.
A phenomenon in which reflectance on the electrodes significantly varies with the wavelength of light can be suppressed by forming the passivation film with a silicon oxide film.
A silicon oxide film having a thickness of 500 to 2,000 angstroms is used as the passivation film of the liquid crystal panel substrate. Although the silicon oxide film has a function as a protective film slightly inferior to the silicon nitride film, it less affects the reflectance of the pixel electrode due to variation of the film thickness compared to the silicon nitride film. Since a silicon oxide film having a thickness of 500 to 2,000 angstroms shows particularly slight dependency of the reflectance on the wavelength, the use of the silicon oxide film as the passivation film can reduce variation of the reflectance.
Further, the thickness of the passivation film is set to an adequate range in response to the wavelengths of incident light on each reflecting electrode. In detail, the thickness of the silicon oxide film as the passivation film is 900 to 1,200 angstroms for a pixel electrode reflecting blue light, 1,200 to 1,600 angstroms for a pixel electrode reflecting green light, or 1,300 to 1,900 angstroms for a pixel electrode reflecting red light. When the thickness of the silicon oxide film as the passivation film is set to the above range, variation of the reflectance for each color can be suppressed to 1% or less, reliability of the liquid crystal panel is improved and the image quality is improved in a projection display device using the reflecting liquid crystal panel as a light valve.
It is preferred that the thickness of the silicon oxide film as the passivation film be determined in consideration of the thickness of an alignment film formed thereon. In this case, the alignment film has a thickness of preferably 300 to 1,400 angstroms, and more preferably 800 to 1,400 angstroms. Variation of the refractive index of the liquid crystal can be effectively suppressed by setting the thickness of the alignment film to the above-mentioned range.
In a liquid crystal panel having a pixel region in which a matrix of pixel electrodes are disposed and peripheral circuits, such as a shift register and a control circuit, formed on the same substrate, a passivation film composed of a silicon oxide film may be formed above the pixel region and a passivation film composed of a silicon nitride film may be formed above the peripheral circuits. Since the thickness of the passivation film above the peripheral circuits does not affect the reflectance, the use of the silicon nitride film enables secure protection of the peripheral circuits and improvement in reliability.
A silicon nitride film may be provided as an insulating interlayer between the reflecting electrodes and the metal layer thereunder, instead of the formation of the passivation film on the reflecting electrodes or by using together with the passivation film composed of the silicon oxide film. The moisture resistance is thereby improved and the MOSFET for pixel switching and the holding capacitor can be prevented from corrosion due to water or the like.
A monolithic protective structure in which a silicon nitride film formed on a passivation film of a silicon oxide is provided over the edge and the side wall of the laminate of the transistor for switching the pixel, and the insulating interlayer and metal layer which form a wire region supplying a given voltage and signal to the transistor. The water proof property is thereby improved at the edge of the liquid crystal panel in which water could otherwise readily penetrate, and the durability is also improved since it acts as a reinforcing material.
When a liquid crystal panel using the above-mentioned liquid crystal panel substrate is used in a light valve of a projection display device, a color separation means for separating the light from a light source into three primaries, a first reflective liquid crystal panel for modulating red light from the color separation means, a second reflective liquid crystal panel for modulating green light from the color separation means and a third reflective liquid crystal panel for modulating blue light from the color separation means are provided, the thickness of the silicon oxide film forming a passivation film of the first reflective liquid crystal panel is in a range of 1,300 to 1,900 angstroms, the thickness of the silicon oxide film forming a passivation film of the second reflective liquid crystal panel is in a range of 1,200 to 1,600 angstroms, and the thickness of the silicon oxide film forming a passivation film of the third reflective liquid crystal panel is in a range of 900 to 1,200 angstroms, the passivation film has a thickness in response to the wavelength of the color light to be modulated in each light valve for modulating each color light. Variation of the reflectance and variation of the synthetic light therefore decrease. Variation of hue of the color display in the projected light between different projection display device products is prevented.